Internationally renowned playwright Marina Carr has been announced as the John McGahern joint writer in residence at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra and Dublin City University. Described as “one of the most powerful, haunting voices on the contemporary Irish stage”, Carr’s work includes By the Bog of Cats, The Mai, Portia Coughlan, Woman and Scarecrow, The Cordelia Dream, and 16 Possible Glimpses.

The residency will be centred in the Department of English, St Patrick’s College and the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University.

As writer in residence, Carr will facilitate creative writing workshops in St Patrick’s College for third-year English BA students and students from the MA in theatre studies programme who are selected for the group on the basis of their creative work. The writer in residence will also participate in the intellectual life of the university community by conducting writing seminars and giving readings of her work to students and staff on both the Drumcondra and Glasnevin campuses.

The position of writer in residence was created to honour the late great Irish writer John McGahern. The author of seminal works such as The Dark, Amongst Women, That They May Face The Rising Sun and Memoir, McGahern trained as a primary school teacher at St Patrick’s College and, in 2003, was awarded an honorary doctorate by DCU.